


Novelty of Thought

by demoxo



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Alternate Universe- Werewolf, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Build, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-04
Updated: 2015-11-05
Packaged: 2018-04-29 20:29:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5141507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demoxo/pseuds/demoxo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Werewolf attacks have been becoming more frequent, and Kaidan helps ease the survivors into their new life. One night he dredges up a man who doesn't leave to settle back into human life as soon as the others. Kaidan is drawn to the charming and wary new blood, and they begin machinating plans to bring down the rogue werewolf that is to blame for all the victims.<br/>* on hiatus - sorry!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Pale and Paralyzed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *bangs fist on table* More werewolf AUs! More werewolf AUs!
> 
> For clarification: future Mshenko planned, default Sheploo face, "Earthborn" origin but working it into this fic's canon. Paragon or renegon Shep. Please feel free to pick me up on mistakes.

The moon, at its fullest, sat high, nestled behind a spotting of clouds for the time being. Once, just once, Kaidan wanted to keep to himself and sleep through the night, but he knew there were people out there dying. Or dead. He quietly cursed his altruistic tendencies as keeping himself shut away sounded more and more selfish. Wind rustled leaves above him in a whisper as he considered his course of action.

He should probably just wander as usual. Fate would lead who he did or didn’t find to their ends or beginnings. With a sigh he heaved his bulk up from the ground and shook out his pelt with a vigour he didn’t think he had previously, and began a steady walk eastward.

Kaidan heard the forest come to life around him, and conversely, settle in for the night. Warm, small mammals shuffled tighter together underfoot, and if he strained particularly hard he could pick up the sound of an owl’s ghostly wingbeats as it sought out prey.

He gave himself a mental shake when he thought about _prey_.

Long did he wander, zoned out, drinking in the sounds and the smells of the forest around him to determine his path ahead. At one point he smelled people out camping, with the stink of smoke and gunpowder, but also food. He considered giving them a wide berth but instead sat and listened for some time. Only when confident they were deep in sleep did Kaidan approach.

His sense of smell was a blessing in locating the campers’ foodstores. They hadn’t killed anything yet, free of the tang of blood, but he of all people knew the woods were rich with game. They wouldn’t miss a few tins of beans. He made several short trips from the campsite to a tree nearby he was familiar with, carrying tins in maw and hand-paws, and buried them in a hastily dug hole.

When the cans were buried he rubbed his shoulder against the tree’s base thoroughly, and reared up again to gouge his claws into the bark. A scent marker would make it all the more easy to find the food again and if the campers spotted his clawmarks they might make haste in leaving the area, wary of bears. That was an agreeable situation.

And so he found himself wandering again.

Hours passed, and his mind began to wander much as his body was. The solemn connotations of the full moon began to lose its meaning to Kaidan. He didn’t dare hope to stumble across any bodies, but with such a quiet night so far he wanted to revel. And so, to entertain himself, he started to race through the trees.

The forest lost its shapes and colours as he ran. A wolf’s vision was nothing to write home about, but he could still navigate with ease – like he was made for it, and in a way, he was. 

But all good things must come to an end, and Kaidan had eventually picked up a hellish smell of blood and rot, and his ears flattened against his skull and he slowed to inspect the damage.

More scents began to swamp him as he crept forward, and he was dismayed to see how close to human settlement this attack had happened. The moon had long left its cover of clouds and if any unfortunate soul happened to peek through their blinds now he’d be seen clear as day. When he found the body, he pulled it unceremoniously back under tree cover. It was easier to assess damage when not fearing for one’s life.

This man had been hit hard, but he was barely alive. Were the moon in any other phase he’d have long since bled out.

Kaidan snarled a curse upon the fool who had been the source of all these attacks, and with great difficulty and little grace, hoisted the man over his shoulders and draped him across his back before assuming a more feral shape, and began the long journey home.

x

He was so tired by the time he’d brought the man back to his home and settled him in that Kaidan felt a familiar pressure begin to hammer at his skull. It was terrible timing, really, not that he ever appreciated it. Normally a nap would stave it off for another day, but he couldn’t now with what may be a newly fledged werewolf occupying his rickety bed. Bleeding out all over it, too. The headache settled in with a vengeance when he thought about how much cleaning had to be done _after _tending to the last night’s victim.__

__It had already broke dawn when he set the man down and began to get to work. In man-shape, of course. He had learned the hard way that young werewolves, without explanation, tended to react negatively to a great big hulking wolfbeast, especially if they still had memories from the night prior. That hadn’t been fun, and had left weeks of repairs to his already terrible house to be done._ _

__The man’s wounds had been so severe Kaidan didn’t bother with treating them with herbs kept through the cabin. He simply set to work, pinching lacerations shut from the shallower ends. The man was deep asleep and so the fabled pace of wolf healing set in, and after a few hours, all but the worst of the injuries were beginning to scab or heal even beyond that, and Kaidan’s migraine was bordering on blinding._ _

__Soon, the man was stirring. Of all times. Kaidan was so short on patience he very nearly considered hitting him over the head with one of his salvaged skillets just to knock him out for another few hours, but he was tired, hated to think of the consequences, and couldn’t just do that to a person. They had to earn it._ _

__So he sat back and watched as the man came to consciousness. There was a rapid heartbeat, a flexing of hands, swallowing. The smell of fear, rage. And then his breathing became shallower, before eyelids fluttered open._ _

__The first thing Kaidan noticed, while in a sea of pain battering at his head, were those piercing blue eyes. So piercing indeed that he was taken completely by surprise when he’d found himself pinned against a wall with his shirt balled in the man’s fists. He was strong… too strong. Kaidan’s growl was weak when his head connected with wood._ _

__“Where am I?” The man demanded between surveying the cabin so rapidly Kaidan could only feel mildly impressed. Almost like the man hadn’t been recently turned and had been living his life looking over his shoulder._ _

__Kaidan struggled to formulate a reply. “My head…” was all he could grunt. The audacity of these young wolves was getting tiring fast. Not like he had plucked their near-corpses from the wilds and coaxed them back to life._ _

__But the man was not impressed. He slammed Kaidan back into the wall, painfully oblivious to how strong he was now, and Kaidan bit back what would have been a very petulant snarl. “What do you want from me? Who are you?”_ _

__“ _Please_ , let me down. I have a migraine.” He licked his lips before continuing. Of course he gets a damn migraine when an aggressive one wakes up! He wondered, not for the first time, why he even bothered. “You were dying. I brought you back. Fixing you.”_ _

__Those depth-less blue eyes narrowed, but the man had rightfully recognised how weak Kaidan was currently, and let him slump to the ground with a groan of pain. While Kaidan tucked his head between his knees and tried to breathe deeply, the newcomer began a very in-depth investigation of the cabin._ _

__“You never told me where I am.” It almost felt like the man kept one eye on Kaidan at all times._ _

__He grunted with increasing irritation and tried to gesture to his head. “ _Migraine!_ Killer headache. Pleasantries can wait.”_ _

__“What’s stopping me from tailing it from here, then?”_ _

__“You have no idea how bad a course of action that would be, believe me.” Kaidan’s exhaling had begun to almost whistle through his nose. It was time for the bombshell. “Last night. You were attacked by a werewolf. Not me, I found you and brought you back from death’s doorstep. You have no idea where we are or how to control yourself now.”_ _

__The response was a sharp and harsh laugh. So the memories weren’t there, then. “Sure. Whatever. Werewolves… and I know how to control myself, thank you very much.” The man had finished prowling through the one-room building, and laid his eyes back on Kaidan._ _

__“No you don’t. I need to sleep this damn thing off. Look at your injuries, would you? You’re not even in good enough shape to run, let alone fend for yourself in the middle of nowhere.”_ _

__Only then, it seemed, the man had looked down at himself. Kaidan’s old clothing was loose-fitting, but the pain he’d registered and put to the back of his mind was now there to explore. “Oh, shit. That’s bad. Those are _bad_. Why are they so old? It looks like I’ve had them for… days…” He trailed off and stared at Kaidan. “How long was I out? And what did this to me?”_ _

__“Only overnight.” Kaidan grunted pointed towards his mattress that had nearly soaked through with blood. “I told you before. Were. Wolf. Read it and weep. Go occupy yourself somehow or rest more, because I really need to sleep this off. You’ll be able to smell where the food is when you focus.”_ _

__The other man kept quiet as Kaidan dragged himself onto his bed. Bloodstains be damned, if he didn’t escape from the migraine now he didn’t know what he’d do. As long as that man didn’t tear down the cabin, he couldn’t care less about him, either. Only sleep awaited._ _

__x_ _

__Kaidan woke, blissfully pain-free, and quickly deduced it was nearly sundown by the angle of the light filtering through the windows. He had nearly forgot about his latest rescue but thankfully the memories came back before his eyes flitted over the strange man in his home. “You didn’t run off,” he hoarsely commented._ _

__“No. You’re right. I haven’t the foggiest where we are. I also ate… a lot of your food.”_ _

__Damn those blue eyes. “You what? How much?” Kaidan asked as he struggled to get to his feet. A werewolf could be up and alert in a heartbeat after waking, but not after a rest spent healing. He was also ravenous, and the thought of his food supply lacking substance was irritating._ _

__“Not much… okay, a lot. Do you have more?”_ _

__He’d had time to cool off, at least. Kaidan rubbed his eyes and stretched before deigning to respond. “Yes, but it’s buried elsewhere, and won’t be fresh.”_ _

__The man paled when he heard that. “God, you’re kidding right? You really think you’re a werewolf, burying meat and… and-”_ _

__Kaidan could only laugh at that. “No, cans of food. Like, beans. Slim pickings when you live out here. I steal them from people who camp.”_ _

__“Woah, no shit.” The man had definitely settled down. “Well, let’s go, I need to eat and then you’re taking me back to town.”_ _

__“I need to show you something first,” Kaidan said dismissively and headed out the door. The man hovered in the doorway and watched him leave with suspicion. “I can’t wait forever,” he added as he turned to face the cabin. “We need to get this over and done with. And you need to move away from my house when I do it.”_ _

__The man was definitely frowning, but complied with a few steps out of his own. When Kaidan began to ease his shirt over his head, he began a chant he’d had much time to memorise. “Don’t worry, don’t freak out, and stay away from the cabin. This is what you are now and it’ll come easier with practice, but watching it happen is the first step.”_ _

__The man began to interject but Kaidan hushed him repeatedly. “Please. Just watch.” As he stripped off his pants, the man broke through his dismissals._ _

__“Okay, okay, I get you’re some forest dude who’s really in tune with nature but you’re going to have to wine-and-dine me first, while awake-“_ _

__Kaidan had stripped down and chose now to shift to the immense form somewhere between man and beast but still hellishly unnatural. Bones snapped and muscle tore and organs reshaped all within the span of a blink, and the new blood had not been blinking, apparently. It would have been mildly flattering if Kaidan’s mind were not on other things._ _

__The new man shot back with a yelp and an unnecessarily loud “Shit!” but the genetic memory of the forebear that had bitten him kicked in, and the two were both staring at eachother in unnatural, hairy and very dangerous forms in a matter of seconds._ _

__“Breathe,” Kaidan growled to the new wolf. “Stay still and breathe.” It was a guttural language, impossible to decipher for humans, but all wolves were born with the ability to speak among themselves._ _

__New blood’s sides were heaving with stress, ears pinned back and body rigid. Kaidan took the time to familiarise himself with his pelt. One of the darkest he’d seen thus far, black with greys and the odd brown peppering his coat. His underparts were the lightest. Kaidan was amused to see his left foreleg was a strong russet with even lighter greys running down the inside. Not a pelt for hiding in snowy wastes, it seemed._ _

__His eyes were as crystal-blue as ever, and Kaidan’s spirits fell a little when he noticed. No real wolves had blue eyes. If this one went feral he’d better be damn good at keeping away from people._ _

__“Can you hear it all?” Kaidan asked gently, rising onto his hindlegs and gesturing to the woods around them. “Relax, you can move. I told you to stay still so you didn’t trash my doorway. Take a moment to hear and smell everything.”_ _

__“Speak?” The other werewolf asked and answered himself in the same breath, but turned around to look himself over. He copied Kaidan, uprighting himself, and seemed particularly absorbed in flexing his front paws over and over. “So, this is real?”_ _

__“Yes. Now, follow me,” Kaidan nonchalantly said. It was better to be calm and dismissive and leave them to their thoughts for the first shift._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This first chapter is just to set the direction the fic is heading in. Later ones may be longer.  
> Thank you for sticking around for this very gratuitous fic. Good werewolf stories have always been lacking!
> 
> Also, a great many thanks and blessings to the wonderful Dave Lamb of Brown Bird, whose music was a constant inspiration, and for his wonderful last album from which I used track titles for both this chapter and the fic itself.
> 
> You were one hell of a guy.


	2. Focus

Kaidan thought the new blood was dealing with the transformation well for a matter of moments. He listened to the crunch of leaves and the odd twig behind him, but when he turned to glance, he stopped. The poor new wolf was way too alert. Every little sound near and around them drew his attention; ears pricked, nose twitching, and tail held rigid behind him.

Kaidan felt sorry for him. He was used to knowing everything that happened audibly, how to tune out the mundane noises of the forest. “Hey,” he called softly.

The black werewolf’s chilling eyes settled on him. He seemed to relax, but barely. “Hey yourself.”

“If you’re trying to act like this isn’t fazing you, you should stop.” Kaidan paused to consider his words carefully. “You’re on edge.”

New blood tried to laugh as a human may, and Kaidan recognised the action, but the sound was hideous. “That’s an understatement. How do you do it? Can you _hear_ it all?” By now he had caught up to Kaidan, who had sat down for the time being.

“You’re new,” was his reply, trying to be gentle. “I’ve had a lot of time to get used to it. It is my home, after all. Trust me, if anything was amiss, you’d be the first to know – you’d pick up on my stress signals, and I’d tell you.” Again he paused, considering the darker werewolf’s refusal to sit beside him. “I know it’s a lot to take in, but it’s real and it’s happening. You don’t have to worry about much anymore, being as strong as you are. Just humans seeing this-“ he gestured to their forms- “and silver.”

New blood had stopped looking at Kaidan and instead had started to focus on the forest around them, turning his whole body when focusing on a new sound, but he made a sound of disgust. “Really? Silver? God damn. Are there werewolf hunters and shit too?”

Kaidan’s pause in the place of a response answered the question, but he nodded. “Yes. Thus the ‘humans seeing this’ part. Come on, we better get moving or we’ll end up eating each other.”

“That’s a joke, right? And have you seen any werewolf hunters?”

“Yes and yes.” Kaidan got up and again set the pace as they loped through the trees. New blood had relaxed considerably but out of the corner of his eyes he still noticed a twitch of movement when new beasts decided to call. “I knew one.”

“Knew? Damn.”

“Well, know. We had an agreement. She’s, uh… had complications, but still goes after the bad apples of the bunch.” Any more information and he feared for himself should she find out he’d been tattling. He wondered if Jack had found any success of late, and if she had any leads on the irresponsible and violent bastard that had been killing and turning so many new humans over the past… how long had it been? Year or so, now?

He was so absorbed in thought that he’d only just registered the new blood was nowhere to be found. “Shit,” he mumbled, and called out. “Hey? Where’ve you gotten to?” Was this happening? Kaidan’s temper was running thin.

Unable to see where the other had run off to, he’d even considered howling, but picked up movement a good twenty to fifty metres back. Kaidan growled as he turned on a pinhead to lope over. “Tell me when you’re just going to stop dead, okay? We’ve already got one rogue wolf terrorising the neighbourhood-“

New blood was investigating the ground, absorbed in the task of sniffing, before taking off at a speed that made Kaidan wish he had hit the man with his skillet before. “You little shit!” Cold fear flooded his gut as he pursued the dark pelt, their paces eating up an enviable distance, and Kaidan knew what the man was after. It was a wounded deer, maybe a bad shot by those campers – he didn’t care now. He smelled blood and weakness and the warm smell of prey and he cursed both the rogue werewolf, and this new blood for bringing him back to square one again. He viciously fought the urge to chase and kill and eat and prey upon beings, but it felt like treading water in a storm. While wearing three layers of thermal warm-wear.

God, he’d gotten so close to just giving in to the hunt, but when he got close enough to the new blood he channelled all of his energy into an almighty leap that rammed straight into the other werewolf’s side, toppling him over.

He was answered with a bellow and claws to the face. Kaidan ignored the sting, snarling in fury just as the other was, and the two started duking it out. This was not how Kaidan had hoped the first shift would go. The idiot had brought him so close to giving in, too. New blood’s teeth glittered in the dying light as they snapped at each other, and Kaidan tried several times to bring him out of it.

Once the new wolf gave him a window of opportunity to go for the throat. Kaidan seized it. When the dark wolf felt jaws close over his neck he let out a haunting roar of a howl and sent them both toppling to the ground when he kicked out with his hindlegs, striking Kaidan in the gut hard enough for his jaws to release.

New blood was now very angry. Kaidan was bulky and well-muscled; so was the other wolf, but he had a certain litheness to him, and struck with claws and teeth lightning-quick. Kaidan snarled while trying to hold him back, and tried again to pull the new blood out of the thrill of fighting.

It seemed the one method that worked was a wallop to the side of the other wolf’s face that left him exhausted. They both stilled, their sides heaving in tandem, as breathless as the other.

“Jesus christ,” new blood muttered, and Kaidan agreed. “That was intense.” They gradually disentangled from one another before shaking off the stress and rage that had been flooding their veins prior. Kaidan still didn’t speak, trying to collect himself. New blood shook as he spoke.

“What was that?”

Kaidan looked up at him reproachfully, but softened when he saw and smelled genuine fear coming from the other wolf. He sighed long and hard. “Human nature. That’s human nature, for you. It draws you in. You’re new, and you can learn to fight it. I know some people that can help. But you can never do that near me again – running after something, I mean.”

Silence answered him, and he continued. “You know who you are, who your human self is, through-and-through. With time you will know what is man and what is beast. I do not and will not. I was born a werewolf, not bitten. It is _so_ damn easy for me to just give in and surrender all the inhibitions I have tried to learn.”

“Fuck, I’m so sorry,” New blood hadn’t turned away, still focused on Kaidan, so he continued.

“My mother was a born wolf, too, and told me how to behave and how to resist it. And then, one day, she just went feral. Gone, completely. I have no idea what became of her, but eventually the feral ones are drawn to people, you know? They kill, and get killed.” He took a breather while he could. “All that, after all she had learned and taught me, and she just… gave in. It terrifies me.”

New blood thought long and hard about this. “That’s a lot to deal with. Do you want to do this... not… as a wolf?”

Kaidan remembered again how starving they were, but shook his head. “We have no clothes, and the sun has set. We’d freeze in no time. And it’s quicker like this.” It was considerate to ask, though.

As they set off again, the new blood piped up. “Speaking of clothes… I’m sorry, the ones I was wearing weren’t mine, were they? I think they got totalled back at your… home.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Kaidan said, continuing to look straight ahead. “I knew it would happen. You’re not the first I’ve helped.”

Maybe he was being a little brusque, but if new blood was genuinely sorry, he’d understand. They continued in silence, their paws striking the ground haphazardly but eventually settling into eachother’s rhythm. It was nice to settle their nerves by running without a word. Peace. Kaidan closed his eyes, but a sudden change in the sound of new blood’s pace made him stop.

“Oh, shit. Something’s different,” the dark grey wolf cautioned.

Kaidan lifted his head some when he looked the other over. “Well, look at you. You already know how to shift, that’s what you’ve just done. You look a lot more natural now, just… huge.” Kaidan let his body undergo the same change with a flicker of concentration. “Doesn’t usually happen so fast. You can go smaller too, like an actual wolf. But I don’t do that. It’s very easy for me to go feral.”

“I won’t try, then. But I don’t even know what I did.”

“Doesn’t matter now, you will find out with time.” Kaidan nudged the other’s shoulder with his muzzle before turning. “Chances are you were just thinking how you should when you’d shift. ‘Like the wolf’.”

“This is too much to think about,” new blood complained as he fell behind Kaidan again.

“Then don’t. We’re close to the cache, anyway. This was around where you took off, I think.”

They were quiet for a moment or two, paces again falling into synchronisation, before Kaidan got a response. “Yeah, I’m really sorry about that. Does it always happen when you do this? New… wolves running off like that?”

“No.” Succinct. “What it tells me is that you’re very much a slave to your instincts.”

“Ouch,” the darker wolf complained with a wrinkled muzzle. “Not far from the truth, but ouch.”

“I’m usually more civil, but I’m sure you can understand for now.”

An uneasy silence fell between them that ate at Kaidan, but he shook it off for now. He was glad the other man was here, at least. They’d be able to carry more food home than he would on his lonesome.

The sun had set, and twilight was brief through the filtering of the canopy and the trunks of trees surrounding their journey. New blood’s dark pelt was perfect for night-time sojourns, Kaidan thought with a pang of jealousy. His was far more natural, barring the lack of any brown – just light grey with dark ticking and facial markings. It worked enough when the moon was out, but a near-black pelt was enviable indeed.

He started going through all the coats of werewolves he knew of to keep his memory on the ball. Wrex: only a little lighter than new blood, with prominent light grey and rust markings. Jack: greys and browns, no pale markings besides a dull tan on her face and underparts. Garrus: fawn with cream light parts, russet ticking. Ashley: washed out browns, more grey than anything.

Only then did Kaidan consider not knowing new blood’s name. He didn’t usually ask; they all had asked him. He looked over his shoulder as they ran, awkwardly, considering the lack of a humanoid neck this time around, to watch the other wolf bounding a little beside him.

They locked eyes, and Kaidan broke the silence. “We’re near the cache now. And you never told me your name.”

Could a wolf smirk, new blood definitely would have now. His tone was cheeky enough, though. “You never told me yours.”

“Kaidan.”

“Shepard.”

“Really?” Kaidan asked as he gradually slowed the pace. “I mean, mine is different enough, but Shepherd?”

“No, Shep-pard. John’s the first name, but it’s a little less interesting.”

Well, that wasn’t wrong. Shepard. As he brought the pace down to barely a trot Kaidan began to sniff out the tree he’d rubbed against a week or so earlier, nose in the air pointedly. The message got across to Shepard, who began to follow suit.

“You looking for something that smells like you? Right over here,” Shepard called, and Kaidan stopped his search. It was hard to find a scent he was so familiar with, but he’d gone straight past the tree itself. Shepard might be useful to have around.

“Yeah, that’s it. Look at the trunk. I also claw them out.”

“Oh, nice.” Kaidan got a feeling Shepard was more interested in unearthing the stockpile of beans beneath. It was his turn to laugh now – much more gentle and almost musical than Shepard’s botched human laugh before – as he sat back and let the other man do all the work.

“We’re going to have to go to that half-person-shaped form when carrying it all back,” Kaidan confessed. He realised he needed better names for them. It was easier living by himself when he didn’t have to explain it all. “It will be slower than running. I didn’t think to bring a bag. I just want to _eat_.”

“Couldn’t we have it now?” Asked Shepard hopefully as he nosed the last of the tins out from the earth and began to fill the hole in.

Kaidan shifted, and began to laden himself with an armful of beans. “No. Your appetite is a lot bigger like this, and I’m sure you know how bad it is just in man-shape.”

Shepard grumbled quietly as he finished filling in the patch of dirt. Looking down at the beans before back to Kaidan, he took on an oddly focused look. Kaidan allowed him, but was ready to bristle at the stare after a few seconds. He stopped when Shepard had, indeed, shifted back into the shape that could be used bipedally and quadrupedally.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” he said softly as Shepard began to pick up his share of the load. “Fast learner, you are.”

“Is that good?”

“I… don’t know. Useful, though.” He let his tone brighten to assure the other wolf, before turning to face the direction back. “Are you ready for the long march home?”

“Ready as ever.” Shepard got up onto his feet, shifting his armload of cans to test for any that may fall. “How can you tell where to go?”

“My home, remember?” Kaidan bared his teeth in a garish grin. The message got across, and Shepard mimicked the expression.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Kaid.
> 
> Thanks so much for the comments and kudos! I'm really self conscious about sharing my creative pursuits but you're all making it enjoyable ;v; I might even try drawing a scene or two sometime.


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